I’ve always had a fondness for most of the core media of entertainment: movies, cartoons, books, video games, and so forth. Put another way, I enjoy many of humanity’s ways of expressing themselves through these media just as much as I enjoy expressing myself through creative activities.
My first memory of interacting with entertainment was my fixation on Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs film; according to my mother, I played the movie constantly on our TV. I even got toys relating to it and played with them every day. Fortunately, they were made of rubber, otherwise I would have likely worn them out!
My first example of fandom obsession as a child. I would take these toys out and dance around the house with them every day!
As I got a little older, I began to explore the world of animation a lot more, especially with increased exposure to anime. Shows like Dragon Ball Z, Cardcaptor Sakura, and Sailor Moon were staple viewings whenever I could find some on TV. In the mid-to-late 1990’s, anime didn’t really have the same popularity in the West that it does now. Finding any on home media like VHS and DVD was not easy, particularly for a small child. Merchandise, however, had made its way into toy sections all over. Once again, I spent hours playing with my Sailor Moon toys.
The “vintage” Moon Cycle I had as a kid. Does that make me vintage too?
As an adult, I still very much enjoy the medium of animation and reject the notion that such things are only for people of a certain age or younger. Considering the wide scope of creativity and the lower barrier of entry for getting one’s creation in front of an audience, I truly believe that this form of entertainment has something for everyone. Sites like MyAnimeList are excellent for finding a movie or series best suited to one’s own tastes and tracking your viewing progress!
Back to the topic of film, my interest for the silver screen really bloomed in my History and Appreciation of Film class back in high school. I learned about film history, genres, technical terms like blocking (placement of objects and actors in a scene), and the art of the critique. I realized it was one thing to state your opinion on something, but it was another thing entirely to articulate the reasons why you felt that way. Building up a proper position through facts and establishing your position are very important in order for anyone reading to comprehend your thought process. Skills like that can be easily extrapolated into activities like debate or literature analysis. Even though I only write the odd review for fun, I also see how such skills can be important for students. For those of you interested, Letterboxd is my personal website of choice for keeping on top of new releases and old obscurities alike.
My all-time favourite movie, The Princess Bride. I love how it seamlessly blends comedy, action, romance and drama.
Oddly enough, even though I have seen The Princess Bride enough times to quote it verbatim, it is one of the many books I have yet to read. Nevertheless, reading has been a passion of mine since the age of four – I would sneak my books into bedtime and classtime the way many kids these days sneak their phones! If, for whatever reason, I found myself unable to teach, working as a librarian or an author would very much appeal to me. Experiencing story in a way that allows me to use my imagination is an endless source of joy to me. Like the other media above it, there is a lovely website dedicated to discovering and tracking one’s literary progress: GoodReads.
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen – one of my favourite novels of all time. Others include Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman.
Moving to a more interactive medium, I’ve enjoyed playing video games since about eight years old. Even before that, I loved watching my dad play the old Elder Scrolls series on his PC. Before consoles entered my life, I would spend all day playing Flash games on my favourite websites or interactive CD-ROM games like Reader Rabbit or any of the Disney Interactive games. The idea of being in control of the story’s action was incredible to seven-year-old me, even if the stakes were low in games for a child that age. Despite being a ’90s kid, I never really had the consoles that would have been available in my early childhood like the Nintendo 64 or the PlayStation. It wasn’t until I was about ten that I finally got a GameBoy Advance SP with a bundled-in game: Pokemon Sapphire.
One of my first gaming gifts as a kid. Sadly, this is not my photo, as I got rid of the console years ago. I still have the game cartridge, though!
I had always been a fan of the Pokemon franchise, but this was the first time I actually played any of the games. Catching new creatures, evolving old ones, progressing the story – it was as though a whole new world opened up to ten-year-old me. Nowadays, although I still have a deep love for gaming and a very extensive collection from the old floppy disk games to now, I don’t really have time to play that much. Most of my gaming time is often on holidays or when I participate in the DP Todd gaming club during my times teaching there. The kids are always infinitely better than I am at Super Smash Bros Ultimate, but I find more fun in surviving as long as I can before the inevitable loss anyway. Maybe this is another new skill I can teach myself? We’ll have to wait and see.